


In Like Company

by zebaoth



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: M/M, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 20:22:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13771830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zebaoth/pseuds/zebaoth
Summary: These nights never seem to go to plan.





	In Like Company

The day was still in its infancy, creeping through its smallest hours, though daylight felt far away as a fairytale in a dingy Windmire tavern.

It was one that Niles knew well. He scraped the mud from his boots onto the floorboards as the door slammed shut behind him with a creaking groan. But as familiar a place it was, on this night there was something unexpected, though, upon reflection, not quite out of place.

There at the bar with his head resting buried in his arms was a man that Niles recognized as Lord Xander’s hapless dandy of a royal retainer.

Niles smiled.

He went to Laslow’s side as if this had been the purpose of his visit, and shook him by the shoulder. “Hey,” he said. “Are you as bad at holding whiskey as you are at courting women?”

“No,” said Laslow, in a muffled voice. “I’m not drunk. I haven’t touched a drop.”

Niles scoffed. “Forgive me if I find that hard to believe,” he said.

“No, really,” said Laslow. He raised his head off the bar and Niles saw that he had been crying.

“Oh, gods,” said Niles. “Don’t start with that. It was only a bit of fun.”

“No,” said Laslow. “It wasn’t your fault. It’s mine.”

Niles turned his face away, uncharacteristically discomforted.

“I guess I’m something of a joke to you. To everyone. Nobody takes me seriously.”

“That’s nothing to cry about,” said Niles.

Laslow wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “You’re right,” he said. “It’s bad enough I’m crying out in the open. But now you’ve seen me cry. I can’t imagine a worse humiliation than that.”

“Oh?” said Niles. “What’s so special about me, then?”

“People like you,” said Laslow.

Niles laughed. “Nobody likes me,” he said.

“That’s not true!” said Laslow. “Lots of people like you. Even if it’s just… well, you know.”

“What?” said Niles. “What do I know?”

“I’ve watched you,” said Laslow. “The way you talk to people. You always know exactly what they’re thinking. You’re amazing.”

Laslow jumped at the sound of a stool scraping across the floor. Niles took a seat beside him.

“I appreciate it,” he said, “but you don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I’m not as dumb as I look,” said Laslow. “And you’re not the only one who knows things about the world.”

“Then tell me what you know,” said Niles, as if humoring him, but betraying the careful focus of his steady voice.

“Well,” said Laslow. “I know that it’s no fun to be alone.”

Niles said nothing.

“And,” said Laslow, “I know that I wish… I wish I could be more like… more like…”

Niles slowly reached out to brush the hair out of Laslow’s eyes.

Before his hand could fall away Laslow took it in his own and pressed it against his cheek.

Niles leaned closer and Laslow closed his eyes expectantly but instead of kissing him, Niles put his mouth next to Laslow’s ear.

“Do you want to get out of here?” he whispered.

-

Niles led him by the hand to a place not far from the tavern. Laslow didn’t know Windmire quite so well as his companion. Niles paid a man for a key to a room that had only one bed.

It was gentle as two bodies can be, together in the quiet of the early morning. When they had finished they spread themselves across the darkness, floating breathless in the wake of it.

Laslow laid on his back, panting through his afterglow, gleaming with sweat in the flicker of candlelight. The sheets clung fast to Laslow’s bare legs and Niles clung fast to the silence.

“Can you hold me a bit?” said Laslow. “I like to be held.”

Niles wrapped his arm around him and drew him closer. He softly kissed the side of Laslow’s neck.

“Mm, I like that,” said Laslow. His eyes were closed.

“Tell me what else you like,” said Niles, and kissed him again, in the same place.

“Well,” said Laslow, “I like your body. You’re strong and you hold yourself with confidence.”

Niles laughed softly into the crook of Laslow’s neck.

“I mean it,” said Laslow. “I admit I’ve admired you from afar, for a while. Just in a passing way. But I never dreamed that we’d…”

He could feel Niles’s breath on his neck warm and steady between kisses.

“But I’m glad we did,” said Laslow. “It’s nice to have company. I only wish I hadn’t waited so long.”

Laslow pressed his head back into the bed to bare more of the skin of his neck. Niles traced the path of Laslow’s heartbeat with his lips.

“It was silly, really,” said Laslow. “I was so afraid, but there was never any reason to be.” Laslow giggled. “I mean, it’s not as if you’d ever say no to a proposition. Here I was all this time, overlooking the one person who wouldn’t have rejected me… Niles? Why have you stopped?”

Niles sat up on the bed beside him.

“Is that really what you think?” he said.

“What?” said Laslow.

“Do you really think that I would jump into bed with anybody who asked me to?”

“Well,” said Laslow, “that’s what everyone thinks.”

“People only think what I want them to think,” spat Niles.

He hadn’t meant to raise his voice, but all the same Laslow shrank away from him like a wilting violet.

Niles regained his composure in an instant, but a change had come over him. He smiled down at Laslow the same way he had when they first spoke in the tavern earlier that night, with steely contempt sharpened into the point of a needle.

“Forget it,” he said. He straddled himself over Laslow, with his hands on the mattress, on either side of Laslow’s face.

“Anyway,” he said, “are you ready for another round?”

“Yes, please!” said Laslow.

Niles crushed his lips hard against Laslow’s. Laslow breathed a winded gasp of surprise into his mouth at the sudden change of pace. Niles dug his nails into the skin of Laslow’s hips.

Laslow squawked. “Easy, now,” he said. He reached up to brush the hair out of Niles’s eye.

Niles grabbed his hand away and pinned it to the bed above his head.

“Hey!” said Laslow.

Niles pressed smiling lips against Laslow’s ear. “Is this what you wanted, you twopenny slut?” he whispered.

“Get off me!” said Laslow.

But Niles had already rolled off of him before Laslow even had the time to reach up with his other hand and push him away.

“You prissy little tease,” said Niles. “I bet you wouldn’t mind so much if Lord Xander roughed you up like that.”

Niles locked himself frozen in a mask of a smug indifference while the blood drained out of Laslow’s face.

Laslow sat up on the bed. “How did you know about that,” he said.

Niles laughed. He was on his side, with his cheek resting on a clenched fist, body bare on top of the covers and illuminated by firelight. “Everybody knows,” he said. His face was contorted in triumph, madly grinning like an idol to some forgotten god of debauchery. “You’ve been throwing yourself at him for months, and yet he never reaches out to catch you, it seems. It’s pathetic, honestly. I almost feel sorry for you, watching you make a fool of yourself every day.”

Laslow covered his face with his hands. “Shut up,” he said.

“Did you really think you’d ever have a chance?” said Niles. As he spoke, Leo’s face burned itself gleaming bright behind the lid of his dead and useless eye. “Do you think that princes fall in love with their knights anywhere outside of fairy tales? Especially with the way you carry on. Picking up strange men at taverns now, are we? He probably thinks you’re disgusting.”

“Shut up!” said Laslow. He tore his hands away from his face. There were tears in the corners of his eyes.

“This is my room,” said Niles. “I paid for it. You can’t tell me what to do here.”

“Fine,” said Laslow. “Then I’ll leave.”

“Good,” said Niles. “Grab your clothes and get out. Get out and don’t come back.”

“As if I’d ever want to!” said Laslow. “I can’t believe I… That I let you…”

“What?” said Niles. “That you let me fuck you? Thanks for that, by the way.”

Laslow groaned in disgust and kicked the blankets off of his legs.

Niles watched him dress in silence. His body was lithe and slender, like Leo’s.

“Look away,” said Laslow.

Niles turned to face the wall in obedient silence.

A few minutes later his door slammed shut, and he was alone.


End file.
